Today is not only the first official day of February but also, Black History Month. It was not until the 20th century, 1926 to be exact that Americans began to study the contributions of Blacks even though they had been in America dating back to the 1400s.

With that said, ask the average American about anyone outside the realm of entertainment and you might be surprised by how little is known.

This is why we celebrate the month with vigor highlighting the contributions of black inventors, activists, doctors, artists, poets, musicians, designers and the like.

We pay homage to Dr. Carter G. Woodson for bringing the importance of black history to the forefront.

Dr. Woodson was born to former slaves and spent most of his childhood in the Kentucky area mining coal. He graduated from high school in two-years after enrolling at age twenty and went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard.

This is where he first discovered that history books in large ignored the achievements of Black Americans.

That prompted him to establish the Journal of Negro History in effort to bring national attention to the matter and launch what was originally called Negro History Week in 1926.

He chose the second week in February because it marked the birthdays of two men he greatly admired, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.